Quote Of The Day

Friday, May 30, 2008

Last night Stu and I (and everyone else from my office) went out to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the company I work for.

We had drinks and dinner at the Ritz followed by a show - Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's glitzy West End.

We had both seen Hairspray before. Twice. Once in New York and once in London. But it was just as good as ever. Leanne Jones was still pumping out the energy as Tracy Turnblad and Michael Ball was still hilarious as Edna Turnblad.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Last Saturday Emma and Carolina held their Civil Partnership at Westminster Town Hall and afterwards upstairs at The Railway Tavern in Liverpool Street. Friends and family joined them on what was a lovely day. Below are some snaps from the day. More photos here.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Now I've finally got rid of Bessie I've joined the car club Streetcar rather than replacing her. Seems far more environmentally friendly for a low user like myself. It was very easy to join - took just five mins. Whatsmore I told them I'd read the Islington pamphlet last year encouraging people to give up their cars that had a five free hours offer on it so the guy gave me £24.75 free on my account as a Member Welcome Credit. Cool. I've got my first trip booked for Sunday so I'll let you know how I get on. They say that car pooling is the future. Well, perhaps for us city mice anyway.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

As has been widely predicted, after the upcoming four specials Russell T Davies is to step down as executive producer of Doctor Who to be replaced by Steven Moffat. Moffat has written some of the best episodes of Doctor Who in recent years including The Girl in the Fireplace, The Empty Child and the super creepy Blink (for which he picked up the best writer Bafta early this month). So I think that season five in 2010 will be in a safe pair of hands.

Monday, May 19, 2008

The following is the transcript of an actual radio conversation in October 1995, between a US Navy ship and the British authorities off the north coast of Scotland. The transcript was released by the MoD on the 10/10/95.

BRITISH: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid collision.

US Navy: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the North to avoid collision

BRITISH: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid collision

US Navy: This is the Captain of US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

BRITISH: Negative I say again divert your course.

US Navy: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER 'USS LINCOLN' THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT'S 15 DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

Alexander Hleb was drinking a beer with Arsenal fans at his missus's gym this week,the Esporta in Swiss Cottage, but saying nothing about his transfer. A gym mole claims Mrs Hleb is leaving the gym. So that's that.[Thanks Popbitch]

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

This is a really interesting article about the discrepancy between reported global temperatures. I don't think anyone is suggesting that global warming isn't happening - it's just that over the next ten years or so a natural thermal cycle will probably make the world cooler. And it's odd that NASA and the Met Office seem to have disagreed since 1998 on whether we are actually getting warmer or cooler. And NASA seem to be adjusting their old temperature figures down and their recent figures up. Very strange at a time when we need accurate information.

Monday, May 12, 2008

On Friday we went to the RVT to see Darren DJ at The Beat Goes On. Stu and I both really enjoyed ourselves (Stu loves them there 60s sounds), bumped into loads of people we hadn't seen in a while and got a bit squiffy.More snaps here.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Getting rid of your car isn't as easy as I'd first thought. Actually I'd not really thought about it at all so actually my first thought was that it wouldn't be easy at all. As ever, the action is easy - but bureaucracy trails in it's wake like so much jetsam.

I'd called the scrapyard to arrange collection and they duly turned up on time and towed Bessie away. So far so easy. But a few telephone calls later and I realised that there was more to this than met the eye. How would I get my all important certificate of destruction? Nice name, huh? I'd heard various horror stories of people being hounded by the DVLA when they thought cars were still on the road and the car tax hadn't been paid. Even if they were now in itty bitty pieces. And a friend of mine had her car crushed (or so she thought) only to have the police turn up on her doorstep a couple of weeks later saying it'd been involved in a robbery. She had to persuade them that she no longer owned the car. A certificate of destruction would pretty much clear both these dangers up.

So I wanted to do this right. I did my research on the interwebnet and made a few calls. There were three organisations to contact:

DVLASend them sub-form V5C section 9 filled in to say car has been given (OK, sold for a nominal sum) to a scrapyard. And also fill in form V11 and attach the old tax disc to claim back prepaid car tax (full months only mind).

InsuranceWrite to Direct Line to notify them that I want my insurance policy and breakdown cover to stop immediately. They rather gleefully informed me on the phone that I'd be liable to pay my premium for the rest of the current month plus one whole extra month cancellation fee. Really? Sounds like daylight robbery to me.

Parking PermitIslington Council were a dream to deal with. Download a PDF form from their site, sign it and send it back with my existing parking permit and I get full refund plus £200 in vouchers towards a new bicycle or Streetcar car club for being green (or is that Green?)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

On Friday night Paul and I went to see the truly wonderful Laurie Anderson at the Barbican Theatre. She was performing her new Homeland show. A show that has caused some controversy (does condemnation of the US invasion of Iraq still count as controversy these days?) with some people walking out. Hah! Screw them!

It was an emotional, heartfelt piece; at times angry and biting and at times satirical and witty. So the usual Laurie then. A gifted story teller we were treated to her reflections on memory, history, the stars, the war and billboard underwear models. The songs were beautiful, funny and one or two akin to club anthems. She all but got us dancing at one point. Her tape-bow violin solo as an encore made both Paul and I cry so tender was it.

Last month, Laurie Anderson married long term partner Lou Reed. "I was just walking down a street in California and I was talking to Lou, and we were always talking about getting married, and he said 'how about tomorrow? It was very nice. It was just him and me under a tree." Bless.

On Saturday afternoon Paul and I went to see Laurie again. This time a collection of her short films (including O Superman, Sharkey's Day, Language is a Virus and Beautiful Red Dress) and her new film Hidden Inside Mountains. She also gave a screen talk and took questions from the audience. She is as witty and enigmatic in the flesh as she is on stage or in film.

Monday, May 05, 2008

On Saturday Paul and I went to the last game of the season which was pretty tame. We almost got a pack of cards out. It was nice to see Lehmann play on what was his probable swansong though. It was left to Bendtner's goal to raise the spirits in what was a pretty laid-back fixture. Roll on next season on 16th Aug.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Residents on the Greek island of Lesbos have declared that they alone have the right to call themselves lesbians, and yesterday launched a legal action against the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (Olke) designed to wrest back control of the word from aficionados of Sapphic luuurv. Local activist Dimitris Lambrou states in his complaint that the "seizure" of the island's name is responsible for the "psychological and moral rape" of true lesbians, and reckons the case will come before an Athens court in June. Olke spokesperson Evangelia Vlam counterattacked with: "This affair is totally ridiculous. But if we are summoned by the courts, we will be heard."

The garage phoned yesterday. The gearbox trouble that my car was suffering will take £3,105.08 + VAT to repair(!) Or rather, it won't. The car is only worth £500 or so and it's not as if I use it much. So it looks like Bessie Boo-Boo is off to the scrapheapAuthorised Treatment Facility after all to be recycled.

Those of you with long memories may remember when I bought Bessie back on 15th October 2002 I had very good reasons not to own a car. I reproduce some of those reasons here (most of which still hold true today) to make myself feel a bit better:

- cars are expensive to buy - cars depreciate quickly - cars are expensive to run #1 car tax - cars are expensive to run #2 insurance in London is ridiculously high - cars are expensive to run #3 need a parking permit to park outside own front door - cars are expensive to run #4 petrol is expensive - working in oil I should know! - cars are expensive to run #5 congestion charge- cars are expensive to run #6 car parking / parking meters for very expensive - cars are expensive to run #7 annual MOT - cars are expensive to run #8 regular servicing costs - I don't have a garage - cars get scratched by yobs - I can't drink and drive - I can't drive a car to work - there is very good public transport in London (taxis, buses, tubes and rail)- I'm always too tired to drive after work or at weekends to drive - I can never find anywhere to park a car anyway - I rarely go out of London - driving a car is dangerous (to me and to other people on the road) - cars cause pollution - London is one big traffic jam (and not just during rush hour) - the new traffic calming schemes slow things even more - London has road works aplenty - bus lanes slow traffic to a stand still - red routes mean you can't park cars outside shops anymore - cars bring on road rage